Board of directors

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Gérard Soula, PhD, MBA Chairman of the Board
Co-founder
Gerard Soula holds a PhD in organic chemistry and an MBA. In 1990, he founded Flamel Technologies, a biotech company specialized in drug delivery and listed on Nasdaq. He held the positions of Director of Research and Development and CEO until 2005. He led the company to success with $100M cash in bank and a market capitalization of $500M. In 2005, Gérard Soula founded Adocia with his two sons, Rémi Soula and Olivier Soula. His exceptional contribution as President and Chief Executive Officer of the company for 17 years has demonstrated his ability to develop and license innovative products for large markets. In 2023, Gérard Soula was reappointed as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Adocia.

Gérard Soula is co-author of more than 120 patents. He has a strong track record in negotiating license agreements with large pharmaceutical companies such as Novo Nordisk, Bristol Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline, etc.

Katerine Bowdish Adocia
Katherine Bowdish, PhD Board member
Katherine Bowdish is the President & CEO of PIC Therapeutics, a venture-backed precision-medicine company focused in oncology. From 2013 to 2020, Kathy worked for Sanofi to establish and lead Sanofi Sunrise, a venture investment/company co-creation and partnering vehicle focused on advancing pioneering science of strategic interest to Sanofi.

Following a 5-year span leading Sunrise, Kathy accepted the role of Vice President and Head of R&D Strategy. Prior to Sanofi, Kathy co-founded or led several early-stage life science companies focused on biological therapies. Past positions include Co-founder, President & CEO, Anaphore; President, Alexion Antibody Technologies and Senior Vice President, Alexion Pharmaceuticals; Founder, CEO & CSO, Prolifaron, prior to its acquisition by Alexion. Kathy holds a Ph.D. in molecular genetics from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in the City of New York, and a B.S. degree in biology from the College of William and Mary.

Ekaterina Smirnyagina Adocia
Ekaterina (Katya) Smirnyagina, PhD Board member
Katya Smirnyagina is Senior Partner for Life Sciences at Oxford Sciences Entreprises. She has two decades of experience in the biotech industry. Katya started her Venture Capital career in 2002 with Alta Partners, a healthcare focused USA fund, followed by Capricorn Partners in Belgium.

She has been a director of a number of public and private companies in Europe and is the past Vice-Chair of InvestEurope. Katya completed her scientific training with a PhD in Cellular & Molecular Biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, followed by a postdoc in Microbiology at the Stanford School of Medicine.

Olivier Soula, PhD, MBA Chief Executive Officer
Co-founder
Olivier Soula holds a PhD in Polymer Physico-Chemistry and an MBA. During the 8 years spent at Flamel Technologies, where he was Director of Research, he successfully led the development of Medusa, a sustained release platform for therapeutic proteins which was partnered with Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS).

In 2005, Olivier founded Adocia with his father, Gérard Soula, and his brother, Rémi Soula. Olivier has held successively the position of Director of Research and Development, Deputy Chief Executive Officer and then, Chief Executive Officer since 2023. He was instrumental in the signing of 4 major partnerships which represented more than 150 million dollars of revenue with Eli Lilly and with Tonghua Dongbao.
Olivier is co-author of more than 40 patents on protein delivery and has worked for more than 20 years in the field of innovative insulin formulations.

Mads Dall Board member
Mads Dall is CEO and owner of Dall & Company, a strategic business development boutique, based in Copenhagen, Denmark, working with clients world-wide mainly within life sciences.

Mads has significant international diabetes industry experience and has operated in US, Europe and Asia with pharma, biotech and med-tech companies in executive, advisory and board positions.

Previous positions include Chief Commercial Officer, Beta Bionics; Executive Vice President, CeQur; Senior Partner, Asia Base; Vice President, Novo Nordisk.

Stéphane Boissel, MBA Board member
Stéphane Boissel is currently Chairman and CEO of SparingVision, a genomic medicine company in ophthalmology. He was previously Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy at Sangamo Therapeutics, based in San Francisco (USA).

He joined Sangamo Therapeutics on the back of the acquisition by the latter of TxCell SA, a CAR-Treg company he was the CEO of. Stéphane is a seasoned biotech professional with over 25 years of leadership experience across corporate finance, strategy and business development.

Stéphane completed his undergraduate work in management and finance at the University of Lyon and Paris-Dauphine in France and received his MBA from the University of Chicago (IL, USA).

Claudia Mitchel Adocia
Claudia Mitchell, PhD, MBA Board member
Claudia is Senior VP, Head of Portfolio Strategy at Astellas Pharma. She was the CEO and co-founder of Universal Cells, a Seattle-based biotech company, until the company was acquired by Astellas.

Claudia has previously co-founded Halo-Bio RNAi Therapeutics and served as its Chief Scientific Officer. She received the EY Entrepreneur of the Year award in Life Sciences for the Pacific NW Region in 2018. Besides being a biotech entrepreneur, Claudia has also held positions in the non-profit sector and in Academia.

She worked as the Program Director at the LGMD2I Research Fund, a family non-profit foundation, and has held a tenured Academic research position at the French National Institute of Medical Research (INSERM).

Claudia has a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Paris and an MBA in International Management from the Ecole des Ponts Business School, Paris, France.